We've all bought grapes from the local supermarkets and you'd be forgiven in
thinking that they're a tropical fruit because of the high prices that are
charged for them. But did you know that you can grow grapes in most countries? In
this episode I'm gonna give you an all-inclusive guide to growing grapes, so
that you can get mouth-watering grapes all summer long. I'm Tony O'Neill and
this is Simplify Gardening, where I show you how to garden in a simpler way.
If you want a perfect garden to relax in or just want to grow your own
nutrient-dense foods, then start now by clicking the subscribe button and the
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like this. Stop before you go and purchase your grapevines, it's really
important to understand what it is you want from your grapes. Because there are
over 8,000 varieties. Now depending on what your grapes requirements are will
depend on the vines that you can grow and its growing conditions, so it's really
important to understand what you want from your grapes. They have a multitude
of different uses. Whether or not you're eating them as a table grape, or whether
or not you want to make jams, juice, jellies, oil from the seed. Even eating
the leaves, there are so many different ways you can actually use the grape. Now
for me, I use them for various few things which are like eating them. I eat them as
a fruit, I want to make jams and possibly wine for them. So a dessert grape would
be a fantastic grape for me to use, for that. Now if you have other ways that you
want to use those grapes then a simple internet search will help you to
establish what vine would be best for you. So what are the grapevines growing
conditions? Well grapes they need six to eight hours worth of really good
sunlight per day. They need to be planted in really good rich fertile soil that is
free draining. Drainage is really important when it comes to grapes. Plant
your plants six to eight feet apart for dessert and wine grapes. But
if you're planting muscadines then look at 12 to 15 feet apart.
They prefer a PH of around 5.5 to 6.5 so it's on the
acidic side of the scale. Now if you are having problems getting your soils down
to that level, you could use Ericaceous compost or even a sulphur dressing which
will help you to bring the PH down so that it is in the requirements that are
best for the grapevine itself. Avoid using clay soils if possible, because
they really do need that drainage. But if you do have to use clay soils consider
adding in loads of horticultural grit, this will help to loosen up that
soil and allow good drainage. Now another good thing for grapes is that you
should mulch around the root zone, because this will do two things. It will
keep in moisture because grapes use huge amounts of water. But also it keeps that
root zone cool in the summer. As you can see here I've been mulching around mine
with woodchips for the last three years, and the vine is actually pushing out of
the ground, so we need to continue to add extra layers to keep this protected. As
you can see here. I have a new grape that is on an exterior wall, and this is now
getting into having its first shape, so we've got the first laterals going off.
We've now got branches forming here and here so we can take off the next ones as
we go up. But we have our main leader. This plant was left on my doorstep
by a viewer. And it was looking rather sickly in a crappy little pot that was
falling apart. We planted it here and it did well. But grapes will do much better
indoors. So if you're in a colder climate like the UK, then your grapes will
benefit from being grown indoors, but they still need to be planted outside.
Because they benefit from this with cooler root zones and water retention.
But take that vine indoors then through the actual wall of the greenhouse or the
polytunnel like I have here. This will do a number of things, as we already know
grapes use huge amounts of water and they send down a deep taproot which will
pull up lots of moisture from the ground. But they also have a lot of surface
roots which pull moisture in as well and keeping those cool is really important.
Now the dormancy period of your grapevines is when your grapevines
use this time to actually use the stored energy that it took from the autumn
before and it produces more root system and it gets ready into pushing out those
new buds early in the spring. Now when the plant goes into dormancy, and it's
the perfect time to get it back to that framework, because if you leave it, then
the plant will use that energy and push it out to those extremities that you're
gonna cut off so it's just wasted energy. So you're better to prune in the
dormancy phase right back to that framework and then the plant has all that
energy to push out new buds for the next season's growth. And the next phase is
bud break, now that's when all the carbohydrates that the vines stored in
its roots. It's trunk and all its stems then this
is all stored but the vine now pushes this up into all the extremities of the
vine itself and new buds are formed. And as they later start to develop, leafs
will first come out and these are the first leaves and it all starts all over
again. Now shoot development, well that's when
the bud is already broken and they first start to produce their first shoots, now
initially this is really slow but after about three or four weeks then they go
into overdrive and this is at this peak of growth and you'll see shoots growing
even up to about an inch a day. It's crazy how fast it grows at this
stage and this is when photosynthesis occurs and the plant starts taking on
lots more energy. Flowering in fruit set is the next stage and over the next few
days these flower clusters will start to be produced. And when temperatures hit
around 68˚F or 20˚C then these will start to
bloom. And the time from bud break to blooming is typically around about eight
weeks. But it's been such a warm spring here in the UK this year it's only
taking around about six weeks. When the timing is right the flowers will start
to bloom, typically lasting about six to ten days from this period. And you'll
know as soon as they have bloomed then the pollen sacks open and they start to
pollinate themselves. Now grapes are self-fertile so they can
pollinate themselves. However, if you keep multiple grape varieties together they
will cross-pollinate readily. In about three days after pollination the seed
begins to form and it happens almost immediately and then around that seed
the berry forms to protect that seed. Now in seedless grapes, those seeds stop
forming after a couple of hours, and the berry forms around them and eventually
those seeds disappear and you end up with a seedless grape. Berry development
they grow really fast at this stage of their life because of the cell division
and enlargement. Now the berries are green in color
and they're hard to the touch and they don't have any sugars in them whatsoever
at the moment and instead, they are full of organic acids. Later on, as the berry
reaches upper half its size then the growth slows and they start to develop
their natural colors. So those grapes that aren't green start to fade and the
reds and the blacks come out and if they are
green grape they fade to an almost translucent color. And this is where the berries
softened and this is called for Verasion and it's way the ripening stage of the
fruit starts. The sugars increase and the acidity levels fall. And how long it
takes for your grapes to ripen will depend on the temperatures at the time
and the light levels. So it could be that one place will ripen much quicker than
another. Now when it comes to harvesting grapes don't ripen in the bowl it's
really important to allow them to ripen on the vine. And to do this it's
different for everybody but literally just take a grape every now and then
from different parts of the vine and taste it every day and when it reaches
the sweetness that you desire then that's the perfect time to harvest
grapes. As all our pallets are different we all find different sweetnesses better
for ourselves over what maybe someone else does. So once we find that perfect
taste then the time to harvest. Now after harvest we want to cool those grapes
down as quick as possible because that will prevent them from spoiling firstly
and secondly from further reducing sugars into more sweetness so once
you've got it right then cool those grapes down and they will last much
longer for you. After the harvest the vines will continue to photosynthesize
and this is when they are storing all the carbohydrates as we mentioned in the
beginning of this video. So they are now using that energy and they're storing it
in their roots in the stems right the way through every single cell that they could
possibly store energy. That's what it's doing now so don't go cutting it back
just yet. And as the plant does this you will notice the leaves starting to turn
yellow as it pulls out the energy out of those leaves and stores it into its root
system. Now when the first frost comes, then it
will drop all its leaves and go into dormancy once again. And again, this is
the perfect time in which you can prune your grapevine right the way back to
the structure that you have made. When pruning off the shoots, don't throw them
all away you can create new plants as I have here. By simply just stripping the
leaves away cutting to a node and placing it into a pot worth of compost.
And leave this to grow throughout the season. You'll end up with a really nice
root system on this, that you can plant up individually like this and give away
to friends. Because these make fantastic gifts when you consider that I only have
two vines here. One of these can really give somebody a lot of fruit for use in
their home. And it's totally free so why wouldn't you do it. One question I'm
always asked about grapes is, are they good for your animals to eat your cats
and your dogs? and the answer to that is no. Because grapes contain a toxin for
dogs especially and it's really bad and it can cause kidney failure. Now it's not
okay to just give them the odd grape some people think oh I'll just give them
the odd one as a treat, but the toxin levels for grapes in your pet dogs
actually accumulate over time, so it's not like the body can get rid of it.
So you should never give your dogs any grapes. Now I have two videos on how I
espaliered and prune these grapes and I'll put links to that in the
description below for you. So that you can see how I've grown these vines to a
really good thickness and they cover this whole wall of the polytunnel as
well as the cross beams as well. So we have two vines in this tunnel and pretty
much the whole tunnel is covered and believe it or not these vines are only
just over three years old. In fact, they starting their fourth year
this season. If you've got value from this video you can subscribe here. And
when you've done that this is the next video you should watch because here, I
show you some essential growing tips for growing your grapes at home. I'm Tony
O'Neill. This is Simplify Gardening where I show you how to garden in a
simpler way. I'll see you in the next one. Bye, bye.